Freedom for Panorama in danger in the EU

Could not find any mention of it here.

The current motion of the European Parliament for a copyright reform will have impact on the freedom for panorama.

Change.org has a petition ongoing.

Best regards,
Michael

Michael Nagel said:

Could not find any mention of it here.

The current motion of the European Parliament for a copyright reform will have impact on the freedom for panorama.

Change.org has a petition ongoing.

Best regards,
Michael

Click to expand...

It's a lot of legalese language but the end is indeed worrysome. It does cast a shadow over photography.

Also what does it mean, "panorama" as one crop one picture, stitch several or make one from a video to make a Pano!

Asher

Asher,

'panorama' is not meant in the sense of a photograph, but touches everything that can be seen from public space (see here for some more explanation).

The legal text is not that difficult, it simple means that taking pictures in a public space containing copyrighted work and publishing these is no longer possible in the straightforward manner like today for many countries in the EU.
You would have to ask permission of the copyright owners (if you can find them) and I am not sure if the de minimis rule applied in France for panoramas containing the Eiffel Tower at night will be applicable.

Here are links to some more pages which should help to explain the issue:
Petapixel
boingboing
Telegraph
techdirt
Archinet

What is already normal in Belgium when you want to take and publish a photograph of the Atomium, will become common place in the EU if this law passes.

Best regards,
Michael

Thanks for the clarification. It's an absurd situation and for someone who's used to total freedom to photography anyone and anything one sees, i't's like Europe is unwinding the enlightenment it brought to the world!

Asher

Copyright laws vary so much from country to country, and are so complex, that only the lawyers can thrive on them. I suppose that it is sensible to try to harmonise these laws across the European Union.

However, this proposal regarding 'open space' photography seems both ridiculous and unenforceable. If every tourist who snaps the Eiffel Tower, the Brandenburg Gate or the Houses of Parliament on smartphone or little compact then wrote in to ask permission to publish, the administration of these structures would collapse under the avalanche of requests. One can imagine that within months all these 'copyright owners' would be begging for this particular law to be withdrawn.

Nevertheless, I have signed the petition against it.

Martin.

An update on the Freedom of Panorama: Wikipedia have now put up a page about the threatening proposal:

<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015>

Wikipedia point out that the removal of this freedom will mean that thousands of the images on this site will no longer be permitted.

Martin